


Shadows and Lasting Impressions

by tuesday



Series: Author's Favorites [7]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-01-08
Updated: 2008-01-08
Packaged: 2017-10-03 23:55:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuesday/pseuds/tuesday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone has taken to leaving paper hearts in Naruto's room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shadows and Lasting Impressions

**Author's Note:**

> Written for one of my occasional promptathons.

Someone has taken to leaving paper hearts in Naruto's room. They're carefully folded and made of a delicate, dark paper. Nothing is visibly inscribed on first glance, but upon closer inspection, there are words written in black ink, visible only for their impression on the paper. The words appear from and disappear into the folds. Partial words and phrases can be made out: "Keep working hard and" and "I think that" and "I" and "You" and "Sor," "orry," "sorry."

He thinks it's a joke the first time, after the genin exam, coming alone to his empty apartment to find a black heart on his bed, thinks maybe it's someone telling him it's his heart that's wrong, his heart that's the reason he failed, that no one likes him. But Iruka-sensei took him for ramen and told him stories and accepted him, and he's able to brush it off easy, flick it to the side and flop into bed.

The next time, it's right before the chunin exam, lodged half-under his door. He's a little more curious this time, but he's busy, and it's put aside and forgotten.

More come after that, usually when he's away on a mission, or has had a worse-than-usual week. After the failed retrieval mission and returning from the hospital, right before he leaves with Jiraiya, his bed is covered in them, and that's when he notices the writing, finally, sprawled among them with some confusion. One is covered with "I'm sorry. I'm sorry" over and over. Another repeats "Good luck!" Another has "Take care" scratched in deep. None of them say "goodbye."

He doesn't receive any while he's traveling with Jiraiya, but three days after they return to Konoha for good, the hearts, too, return. Naruto even starts a drawer, and it's approaching its capacity to hold them. Every once in a while, he takes them all and scatters them across his bed, sifting through their partially revealed messages.

He knows there's something written in the middle, that he's only seeing the surface, but he can't bring himself to unfold the paper, to try to reveal their secrets. The paper is almost like tissue, though soft against his fingers. He's noticed that it's not really black so much as a dark, deep violet, so close you almost can't tell. The paper wavers delicately with his every breath.

Naruto's only sixteen, now, but he more than anyone knows the fragility of a heart. Opening it, reading it, clutching it tight between grasping fists, would only destroy it and, even with so many, each is too precious to lose.


End file.
